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By Josh Altic
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: Should cold beer be a crime? It is in Indiana, where state law allows convenience stores, drug stores and grocery stores to sell beer but only if it is warm. Several store organizations have banded together to sue for the right to sell cold beer along with their liquor store competitors.
Freedom Express, Ricker’s and Thorntons filed a law suit against Indiana State and the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission on the basis of equal treatment under the law.
David Bridgers of Thorton's convenience stores complained against inhibiting nature of this law, saying, "Thorton's has not built a convenience store in Indiana since 2006 for the sole reason of its antiquated alcohol laws."[1]
Gregory Cobb, managing member of Freedom Express, said, “Some common sense needs to be applied to Indiana’s alcohol laws, so that Hoosier business owners like myself may provide products, including beer, without ridiculous temperature restrictions to their customers."[2]
The Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (IPCA) supports the law suit and is in favor of repealing the law against cold-beer. Scot Imus, the Executive Director of IPCA, said, “There is no logic with the current law that gives one class of retailer an exclusive right to sell cold beer. Indiana’s alcohol laws have not always favored one retailer over another and in fact, it was just in the last 50 years that liquor stores were granted the privilege of selling cold beer.”[2]
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